My first experience with a person with a disability was my nephew, Ethan. He has Autism and was diagnosed around the age of two. When I think back to what I first noticed about him was that he never spoke and he never wanted to make eye contact with you. My mom and sister were the ones who mentioned to my brother and his wife that something seemed off about their son. Of course, my brother was in denial saying he was just taking longer to develop but my mom was persistent and made him get Ethan tested. She was a nurse and had four kids of her own. She knew based on her profession that he wasn’t behaving like a normal two year old. I wasn’t in teaching at the time so I had no idea about the variety of disabilities that were out there. …show more content…
One that comes to mind was my annual sleep over. I have a total of five nieces and nephews plus my own two children. I used to take all of them except for Ethan for a week in the summer. I didn’t include him because I was afraid of how he was going to act. I didn’t know how to handle him when he would have outburst. Looking back I wish I would have included him more. However, I didn’t have the experience with children that I now have. Now, I understand more about his disability which as I reflect would have changed the way I looked at him. His disability excluded him from a lot of fun activities not only with me but with other people as well. I think the stereotype that I reinforced was because he had a disability he wasn’t normal. I understand now that his outbursts were his way of trying to communicate with people. It must have been so frustrating for him. What I do know about him is that he is a genius when it comes to video games. When I see him around the holidays or his birthday he often gives me a list of games he would like for me to buy for his X-box or Play Station. I am amazed that he plays them because I don’t have the kind of stamina required to focus on a video game for a sustained period of time. However, he plays them until he completes the entire
Most people feel relatively uncomfortable when they meet someone with an obvious physical disability. Usually, the disability seems to stand out in ones mind so much that they often forget the person is still a person. In turn, their discomfort is likely to betray their actions, making the other person uncomfortable too. People with disabilities have goals, dreams, wants and desires similar to people without disabilities. Andre Dubus points out very clearly in his article, "Why the Able-bodied Still Don't Get It," how people's attitudes toward "cripples" effect them. It's is evident that although our society has come a long way with excepting those with physical disabilities, people do not understand that those with physical disabilities are as much human as the next person
ASD individuals may find it hard to communicate and socialize with others around them. However, because each child is unique, they have their own unique abilities and ways of responding to new experiences. Other issues children with ASD have include; anxiety, sleeping problems, and learning disabilities. Those who are diagnosed with ASD or any other disability are usually judged and bullied. In the documentary Violet’s mother says she is afraid of her child being labeled and underestimated because she is diagnosed with autism. A child’s disability can also affect their family members. Family members may have a difficult time understanding and getting to know the autistic child in order to provide for them. They struggle to find interventions such as treatment and therapy for them, the right medical care, and trying learn to cope with all this. At times parents and caregivers can also feel stressed or irritated knowing they have to fulfill all of the child’s needs. Siblings on the other hand, may find it unfair that the autistic child gets the most attention and
My People with Disabilities Single Story Narrative In 6th grade, I remembered seeing the ambulance outside the windows of my elementary school. I was in the classroom when there was a rush of EMTs entering the building. Students all started to run towards the door, including me, but were told to get back to our seats. Throughout the day, I was wondering who might have gotten hurt while praying it wasn't my sister or brother.
My younger brother was diagnosed with high-functioning autism at a very young age. I am glad that to any bystander, he just seems like a quirky little kid, but sometimes I wonder about how people will treat him as he grows older, and how he is going to adapt to life as a long-term students (he is currently home schooled). When most people think of a developmental disorder, they imagine something along the lines of gaining some brain damage in your early years of life that puts you in a vegetable state for the rest of your waking days. After learning lots of information on the topic of autism spectrum disorders, I know now that this idea of developmental disorders like autism is entirely outdated and does not do the entire population of people with these disorders any real justice.
( Autism Spectrum , 2009 ). Kids with autism usually show signs within the first three years. Signs can be difficult to notice at first even though a child with autism has it at birth. Children at a young age might not be interested in simple common games such as peek a boo, and may not like to be held. They also may seem to have problems with their hearing ability. The child may not seem to be able to hear you and does not respond, but when hearing a distant noise like a truck or train, this will get their attention immediately. Teens with autism seem to start changing their behavior. They may seem to excel in certain skills but with that their ability to understand and relate to others expressions. They also seem to have more of an issue understanding and going through things with emerging sexuality and puberty.
A lot of the times a child has a disability they are treated completely different from those who
“If the technology became available for the deaf to hear completely, would you want your deaf child to have this technology?” It is every parent’s dream for their child to grow up healthy and happy. There are so many children in the world that do not have the ability to hear, and it is a horrible thing. Many would think it wrong for a parent to not want to give their child the gift of sight. If I had a child that was deaf, I would do everything in my power to help them get their hearing. If the technology was there to fix this disability, why wouldn’t anyone want their child to have it? “840 babies are born with a permanent hearing loss every year.”(NDCS of UK). This is a horrible number to hear, that so many children will never be able to hear. If there was any technology able to restore a child’s hearing it would be a shame if the parents didn’t get it. “Deaf children face tremendous difficulties learning to read, write and communicate with the hearing world around them.”(NDCS of UK). Not only would you be giving your child the gift of hearing by using this technology, but you will also help child to be able learn on the normal level of other children.
Disability is an topic that has produced conflict, and is viewed very differently from either side. For able-bodied people to truly understand what disabled people go through they need to see disabled people more; see their lives. If seeing disabled people more often became reality, they would be viewed as normal more, and it would make interacting easier for both sides. Disabled people have a hard life, but it does not mean it is not worth living. Nancy Mairs, Andre Dubus, and Harriet McBryde Johnson all have physical disabilities, and have written about their experiences and views. In their writings, they touch upon both similar and different points. A very present similarity between the authors is they all play to the same audience. In their messages, both Mairs and Johnson agree that able-bodied people automatically assume that disabled people have a lower quality of life or are unhappy. The strategies used by each author plays to their message, and aids them in getting across their position. Disability isn’t always easy to understand, and these authors help illustrate that.
In our grade school years we were taught that kids with disabilities were special. We
To begin my research I put myself in the shoes of parents with special needs children. I have two beautiful healthy daughters and to think about being pregnant and expecting to deliver your bundle of joy and when she arrives you find out something is wrong. You can look at her and tell she is different, but you just do not want to accept it. It saddens me to think how any parent would feel in this situation.
The first thought that crosses the mind of an able-bodied individual upon seeing a disabled person will undoubtedly pertain to their disability. This is for the most part because that is the first thing that a person would notice, as it could be perceived from a distance. However, due to the way that disability is portrayed in the media, and in our minds, your analysis of a disabled person rarely proceeds beyond that initial observation. This is the underlying problem behind why disabled people feel so under appreciated and discriminated against. Society compartmentalizes, and in doing so places the disabled in an entirely different category than fully able human beings. This is the underlying theme in the essays “Disability” by Nancy Mairs, “Why the Able-Bodied Just Don’t Get it” by Andre Dubus, and “Should I Have Been Killed at Birth?” by Harriet Johnson.
In middle school I was diagnosed with a disability with the way I expressed myself through writing. Ever since, I have gained multiple values and learned several lessons about self confidence. I was taught to push past my limits, in order to be successful in reaching my goals along with my dreams. Today I am a senior in high school who was once thought to struggle, but was able to succeed beyond expectations. To some, a disability may seem like a setback from achieving goals, but to me I used it as a challenge for myself. I accepted myself for who I was and looked at my disability as a unique trait of mine. I was able to provide a message to others that anything you set your mind to is possible with dedication and hard work. It might take
The access experience was physically exhausting, yet enlightening, while being extremely frustrating all at the same time. It was physically exhausting due to the lack of upper body strength that I had, enlightening because the majority of people offered to help me get where I needed to be, and frustrating because of the amount of ice on the ramps, as well as how many doorways were barely wide enough for the wheelchair. Along with the physical and emotional aspects of this project, I encountered numerous barriers, making the experience that much more challenging.
I have always grown up in a more ‘normal’ setting and seeing people with disabilities was something that was rare to me. When I was younger, my thoughts on people with disabilities were that they could only be physically seen, nothing else (mentally, intellectually, etc.). As I reached middle school, I realized how broad the world is and how many ways people were affected by disabilities. Some of them led a more normal life and some have a harder time adjusting. Just seeing and reading how so many are affected and how harder it is for them really opened up my mind and allowed me to have a wider perception of how broad things are in the world.